House



(No Model.)

G. WESTINGHOUSE, Jr. ELECTRIC vEMME/AY SYSTEM.

No. 584,911. Patented June 22,1897.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEIcEc GEoRGE wEs'rINGHoUsE, JR., or PIrrsRURG, PENNSYLVANIA, AssIGNoR ro TIIE wEsrINGI-IoUsE ELECTRIC AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, oF sAME PLACE.

ELECTRIC- RAILWAY SYSTEM.

` SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 584,91 1, dated June 22, 189'?.

Application lefl November 26, 1892. Serial No. 453,197. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.- tent not permissible owing to the excessive Be it known that I, GEORGE VVESTING- horizontal strain thereby produced. On the HOUSE, J r., a citizen of the United States, reother hand, if the trolley be placed low enough siding in Pittsburg, in the County of Alleto conveniently make contact midway be- 5 gheny and State of Pennsylvania, have intween supports it will not reach the wire at 55 vented a new and useful Improvement in Electhe supports. Ithas therefore been necessary tric-Railway Systems, (Case No. 506,) of to use vertically-yielding trolleys to follow the which the following is a speciication. large catenaries of the wires as hitherto sup- My invention relates to that class of electric ported, and springs have ordinarily been em- Io railways wherein an overhead wire is used, ployed in this connection. The consequence 6o the current being brought to a motor on the is that slanting poles have been used, which oar by means of an upwardly-extending conwere necessarily provided with vertical pivots tact device, generally on the roof of the car. and with pull-down ropes, whereby the con- The object of my invention is to simplify ductor could reverse the direction of slant at I5 the contact device so used and to render all the termini of the road. IVllen such trolleys 65 attention thereto on the part of the conductor leave the wire, as frequently occurs at crossor motorman unnecessary. ings, they are violently thrown against the A further object which I have had in view roof of the car or against cross-wires, thus prois the more secure attachmentof the overhead ducing considerable damage. In order to zo wires byprovidinga greater number of points avoid these inconveniences and to free the 7o of attachment therefor without increasing the men on the cars from all care in this respect, number of poles and cross-wires in use. the use of rigid andimmovable trolleys is very In the accomplishment of these ends I emdesirable. ploy the devices shown in their preferred In Fig. l the usual supportl is used in con- 2 5 forms in the accompanying drawings, wherenection with a supplemental wire 2, which is 75 in attached, as shown, to the conductor 3 at Figure l is a side elevation of a portion of points on each side of the support, as shown overhead wire and of a trolley as used thereat 4. The fastenings 4E are of any well-known with, showing the mode of attachment of the type at present used and should, of course,

3o former. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a preinsulate the wire 3 from the wire 2, although 8o ferred form of trolley. Fig. 3 is a side elevathis is not absolutely necessary. The suption of an optional form of adjustment for my port l may be held by any known form of trolley. pole, standard, or wire now in use for this It has not been hitherto possible to collect purpose. I make the wire 2 preferably about 3 5 the current from overhead Wires by means of fty feet in length, thus reducing a two-hun 8 5 rigid contact devices owing to the fact that dred-foot span to a fifty-foot span, and that the mode of attachment of the overhead wires without increasing the number of poles and has produced such a sag therein between supcross-wires. This decrease in span renders ports as to necessitate the use of some form the variation in height of Wire far less, and I 4o of contact-arm capable, of following the vertiam thus able to use a rigid trolley-arm` 5, as 9o cal curves in the wire. rlhe horizontal curves above explained. have been easily allowed for by means of a In order to do away with devices permitcontact-trolley sufficiently long transversely ting transverse movement of the trolley, I to accommodate the wire in various positions preferably employ a cylindrical contact-roller 45 in the horizontal plane. The vert-ical curves, 6, sufciently long to reach the wire on curves 95 however, have always been so great as to forand in spite of all transverse swing of the car. bid thev use of a rigid trolley, for if such trol- This is found convenient in relieving the trolley be placed high enough to touch the wire at ley from all necessity of supervision 'by carpoints of support it would have to raise the men. I wish it distinctly understood, how- 50 wire midway between such supports to an exever, that the ordinary trolley-wheel may be roo employed in this connection without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The roller 6 is preferably provided with grooves 7 at intervals for the purpose of securing a greater contact surface. These grooves are so shallow as to permit easy movement in and out of t-hem by the conductor. This, however, is also not necessary to my invention. The rolleris mounted on the ends of arms 8, preferably rigidly fixed to the roof of the car, and said roller should be placed at a height a little above that of the points of suspension 4, so as to insure good Contact at such points. Of course a iiexible contact might be used.

XVhen it is necessary to hang the Wire 3 at different elevations in various parts of the line, the arms may be made adjustable in length. Such adjustability may be secured by any well-known means, and in Fig. 8 I have shown an example of such means. In Fig. 3 the part 9 is fixed to the car and is preferably rigid. Said part 9 is provided An ad vantage secured by this inode of suspension is that pull-olf Wires at curves can be directly attached to the clamps 4, thus rendering unnecessary the use of additional clamps.

I find it advantageous in constructing the roller to make it of thin spun-metal sheets, but this is only one of many useful forms of roller.

Vhat I claim is- In an electric-railway system, the combination of a continuous trolley-wire, a contactcylinder having a plurality of grooves and making uninterrupted engagement with said Wire, a fixed vertical support for said contact-cylinder, a car on which said support is mounted, and yielding supports for said trolley-Wire each consisting of a centrally-supported sustaining-Wire, and attachments between the ends of said sustaining-wire and said trolley-Wire, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my n amc this 21st day of November, A. D. 1892,

GEO. IVESTINGIIOUSE, JR.

IVitnesses:

JAMES Win. SMITH, HAROLD S. MACKAYE, 

